Battle report for the Midwest Naval Combat Club event in Hinckley, Ohio this past weekend. On Saturday we had four boats on the water. Roland had his Bismarck. I was running Jeff's Cavour. Mark had his Roanoke. And Chris had his little Russian destroyer Tashkent. When asked about what the teams should be, Roland thought it would be nice to be able to run with the Roanoke on his side for some unknown reason. I think I heard Roland mention that the Roanoke was generally on the Bismarck's side. And off of his bow. And off of his stern. Or something like that anyhow. So the Bismarck and Roanoke would take on the Cavour, and the Tashkent. We got in two battles with two sorties each, without any sinks or penalties. The Cavour did pretty good. It was my first time running her, and I like that little boat. Well, she is little compared to all of my other boats. The Bismarck, and Roanoke did very well also. The Tashkent was able to dish out lots of damage while taking very little damage in return. It was great battling, and great fun. We had no rain at all on Saturday, even though they were calling for a good chance of rain all weekend. The event had seemed like it might be cancelled, due to the weather. Sunday was great as well. It sprinkled for a few minutes in the afternoon. That was it. But the clouds were everywhere. We pretty much felt like the rain was going to start at any time. Mark got Jeff C's pocket-battleship back on the water for some sea trials. It looks and runs great. It will be a much better boat than when I had it. A very nice set up indeed. Well done Mark. In the first battle the Bismarck and Roanoke decided to take on the Cavour and the Tashkent again. We had a two sortie battle with no sinks or penalties. It was a great battle again. Then Dustin showed up with his brand new French super-battleship Alsace. It looked absolutely gorgeous. I decided that I couldn't bring myself to shoot at it if it happened to be on the opposing team. He ran the beast around for a few minutes and decided it was combat ready. The teams were allies against axis. Alsace, Roanoke, and Tashkent against the Bismarck and Cavour. After only a minute or two into the first sortie it appeared to me that Roland had decided that he didn't have to outrun the allies . As he was able to outrun me, and I found myself surrounded by the allied horde. And when the Alsace closed in on me with the dual sidemounts, I figured that I was going to have to shoot my way out unless I wanted to go swimming for my boat. So I set course for the Bismarck, and when we formed up again, the Alsace engaged the big German, and I was left with the two smaller allied ships. It reminded me of swatting at gnats. I was getting eaten alive, and didn't seem to be able to come to grips with the fast-movers. A pretty sad state of affairs all in all. But eventually it ended. The gnats ran out of ammo, and the sortie drew to a close. I had suvived the sortie, but was carrying the most damage, and pumping. The second sortie didn't look very promising unless the axis worked out a strategy. The Bismarck and Alsace had come together at some point, and the big Frenchie had taken some ram damage above the waterline. So the axis were down 100 points. As we launched the ships for the second sortie, it was discovered that the Alsace had no cannons working due to some electrical issue. Dustin was frustrated, but decided to send the beast out and call five, and make a run for it. He was faster than both of the axis, so it seemed like a good call. The sortie started, and the big Frenchie headed for open water, with the Bismarck in hot pursuit. There was no chance of the Cavour getting shots at the Alsace, so I did not take part in the sea chase. I half expected the Roanoke and Tashkent to try to defend the Alsace, but that was apparently too much to hope for. They both decided that their time would be better spent attacking the opponant that they could both outrun and outturn. The gnats were back. And I had forgotten my bug-spray. It was going to be a long sortie. Again! The Alsace faired pretty well. She took some more hits from the Bismack, but not enough to hurt her, and survived the five minutes. It is perhaps possible that I got a few more hits on the big Frenchie as well, when I missed the smaller allied boats that I was actually shooting at. The Alsace is around 900 feet long, and I think I got more hits on her by accident than I got on the Roanoke and Tashkent on purpose. When that chase ended, the Bismarck was able to help me with the Roanoke and Tashkent, but neither of them seemed interested in being denied a sink, and kept the heat on the Italian. I survived my five after exhausting pretty much all of the allies ammo, but almost sank at the shoreline. All of the other ships survived the sortie, and the allies rang up a victory. It was great fun. Time well spent indeed. Thanks to all that made the event all that it could be. Until next time. Mikey
